European Space Agency

:This article is about the European Space Agency. For other meanings of ESA, see ESA (disambiguation).

Member countries, budget and organisations

Member countries and strategic partners

ESA comprises the national space organisations and other entities of these seventeen countries:

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Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg{{ref|luxembourg}}, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

Related Topics:
Austria - Belgium - Denmark - Finland - France - Germany - Greece - Ireland - Italy - Luxembourg - Netherlands - Norway - Portugal - Spain - Sweden - Switzerland - United Kingdom

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Many countries are likely to join ESA in the coming years, especially the countries who were part of the EU-enlargement in 2004. In addition ESA entered into important partnership agreements with non-member countries:

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• Hungary and the Czech Republic signed the five-year Plan for European Cooperating State (PECS), that is aimed at preparing the states for full membership. Their firms can bid for and receive contracts to work on programmes. The countries can participate in almost all programmes, except for the Basic Technology Research Programme. The membership fees are much lower than with full membership.
• Poland and Romania are likely to be the next to sign PECS documents.
• Since January 1, 1979, Canada has the special status of cooperating state with the ESA. By virtue of this accord, Canada takes part in ESA's deliberative bodies and decision-making and also in ESA's programmes and activities. Canadian firms can bid for and receive contracts to work on programmes. The accord has a provision ensuring a fair industrial return to Canada. See also: Canadian Space Agency
• ESA has entered into a major joint venture with Russia (see below).
• Since China started to invest more money into space activities, the Chinese Space Agency has sought international partnerships. ESA is, beside the Russian Space Agency, one of its most important partners. Recently the two space agencies cooperated in the development of the Double Star Mission.

Relationship with the EU

Currently, ESA is not within the structures of the European Union (EU) — note that its membership contains non-EU countries such as Switzerland and Norway. There are ties between the organisations, with various agreements in place and being worked on, to establish the legal status of ESA with regard to the EU {{ref|esaeu}}. There are common goals between ESA and the EU, and ESA has an EU liaison office in Brussels. The EU in particular wishes to secure political control of Europe's space access, an issue of vital importance for Europe's political and economic role in the world.

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Budget

The budget of ESA was announced as ?2.977 billion for 2005. This constitutes a ten percent increase in the budget in comparison with 2004. The increase will be largely invested in ESA's launch vehicles that are currently the most expensive part of ESA's activities (Twenty-two percent of the budget goes into launch vehicles; human space flight is second in budget expenditures). In 2005, the three largest contributors, together funding two thirds of ESA's budget, are France (29.3%), Germany (22.7%) and Italy (14.2%). {{ref|esabudget}}

Related Topics:
2005 - 2004 - France - Germany - Italy

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In comparison with NASA's budget of sixteen billion dollars (?13 billion), ESA's budget of ?3 billion superficially looks considerable less. However in order to make a true comparison more factors have to be considered:

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• Unlike the US, Europe maintains both ESA and national space agencies (see below). These national space agencies do have considerable budgets provided for scientific research and joint projects with ESA. For instance, the German DLR has a budget for 2005 of ?760 million {{ref|dlrbudget}} and the French CNES had a budget of ?1.3 billion in 2004. Taking the budgets of all national space agencies together and adding them to ESA's figures would at least double the amount spent by Europe for space related activities.
• Considerable costs are incurred by NASA in maintaining the ageing Space Shuttle. A single Space Shuttle launch costs more than $600 million and during the last decades up to one third of NASA's budget had to be invested in the Shuttle to keep it flying (for 2005, $5 billion are allocated for the Space Shuttle constituting 30% of the budget {{ref|nasabudget}}). Although ESA had plans for an own manned spacecraft such as Hermes, it has never actually developed or maintained a manned launch system, rather it has paid for seats on the American and Russian spacecrafts, and therefore was and is not burdened with the costs of human space flights. In the last years ESA has become interested in the Russian built but jointly owned Soyuz (controlled by Starsem it is owned by EADS, ESA and the Russian Space Agency) that is capable of human space flight and will further decrease costs for European manned missions (see below). One Soyuz launch costs approximately $30 million {{ref|soyuzlaunch}}
• While NASA's funding of many research projects has been cut in the recent years and months in order to free money for the development of the Crew Exploration Vehicle and for the retirement of the Space Shuttle, ESA's investment in research and development projects has increased steadily in the last years. With the joining of new ESA member states the budget is likely to increase further by a large rate in the next years.
• After the space race activities of the 1960s and early '70s, NASA has maintained a huge administration and bureaucracy that still burdens both current projects and NASA budgets. ESA was never involved in large-scale political activity such as the space race, it therefore has always had a small and efficient structure and agency level comparable to a private company.

In comparison to other space agencies, ESA and NASA are in another budget league, with the Japanese JAXA having annual funds of ?1.6 billion at its disposal {{ref|jaxabudget}} taking the third place, followed by the ambitious Chinese Space Agency with around ?1 billion. Although the Russian Space Agency is still considered as one of the most experienced space agencies, its budget is dramatically low reaching not more than $800-900 million per year {{ref|russianbudget}} approximately the same amount the Indian Space Agency can rely on.

Related Topics:
JAXA - Chinese Space Agency - Russian Space Agency - Indian Space Agency

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Notable national space agencies

• The Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) (National Centre for Space Study) is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public establishment of industrial and commercial character"). Its headquarters are in central Paris.
• The Italian Space Agency (Agenzia Spaziale Italiana or ASI) was founded in 1988 to promote, coordinate and conduct space activities in Italy. Operating under the Ministry of the Universities and of Scientific and Technological Research, the agency cooperates with numerous entities active in space technology and with the president of the Council of Ministers. Internationally, the ASI provides Italy's delegation to the Council of the European Space Agency and to its subordinate bodies.
• The German Aerospace Center (DLR) (German: Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V.) is the national research centre for aviation and space flight of the Federal Republic of Germany and of other member states in the Helmholtz Association. Its extensive research and development projects are included in national and international cooperative programmes. In addition to its research projects, the centre is the assigned space agency of Germany bestowing headquarters of German space flight activities and its associates.
• The British National Space Centre (BNSC) is a partnership of the UK government departments which are active in space. Through the BNSC the partners provide delegates to represent the UK on the various ESA governing bodies. Each partner funds its own programme.